Mass Effect - Against All Odds - Chapter One
by M1Burns
Summary: During the Reaper War, all of the galaxy's advanced species band together to fight the ever-desperate stand against the Reaper invasion. A team of intermixed species sent by the Allied front touch down to find missing, maybe crucial information of what data that could be used against the Reapers. Rated T for violence.


**Author Notes** – This is my first time posting and publishing a fanfiction anywhere. This will be the first part of a series that I will be working on from now on. Ratings and constructive comments are welcome. And please, no offensive, rude, or inappropriate comments. Hope you like the first part of my story. :)

-Against All Odds–

Chapter One – Into The Unknown

"Oh Keelah..." An explosion resounded near Miaa'Breizh vas Qwib Qwib, causing rubble to rain down on her precariously. The sound of Reaper gunfire erupted from a smoking laboratory module, red pellets peppering down on Miaa's cover. More explosions rocked the ground as Reaper cocoons blasted their way into the ground carrying dangerous cannibals. They snarled at the defiant quarian as even more husks burst out of the storage modules. The Reaper forefront encroached relentlessly onto the entrenched quarian as more gunfire tried to blast her into submission. Miaa fired her Carnifex at the emerging husks, killing two husks in rapid succession. Suddenly, a blast of energy erupted from the crowds of husks, warping yet more of them into pure oblivion. A cannibal was lifted in the air as dark energy surged forward, throwing the cannibal into the groups of husks, knocking them out.

"Ryan!" Miaa shouted over the sounds of battle as the Alliance Sentinel fired his Tempest SMG into a horde of Reaper husks. "Miaa, are you alright?" the blue eyed human keenly responded to the environmental-suit clad quarian. "Y-yea, it's just..."

Suddenly, a husk crept up on Ryan, leaping onto his upper torso as the zombie-like creature attempted to rip his head off. Flipping the husk to the ground as he pulled the creatures arm into a breaking twist, he stomped the monstrosity's cranium into countless, bloody pieces. The rest of the horde was dispersed to nothing with gunfire.

Miaa gazed over the headless, lifeless husk before raising her eyes to the biotic human.

"You alright?" concern glazed over her glowing eyes. Rubbing the back of his head, "Yea, I'm alright, just a minor scratch really." She gave the human a brief but tight clasp around him before shrugging off the rather instinctive reaction. The Quarian blushed profusely, but luckily her semi-transparent helmet visor only showed her glowing, ambient eyes at the human. She straightened her colorful red-rose hood covering the many tubes that connect her environmental-suit to her helmet.

They've been through many daring, dangerous missions together ever since the inception of the Reaper War. Although starting out just as comrades in beginning of the war, experience have made them good and trustworthy companions, non-mottled by the rather intense discrimination of the Quarian race due in part of their creation of the geth, and the rapid paced, allegedly "supremacist oriented" attitude humans possess. Despite many petty insults and the occasional threat thrown at their growing friendship, they kept together in spite of racial views.

Their moment lasted a mere two full seconds before snapping their conscience back to reality.

Ryan looked around, and seeing no more Reapers in sight, he took a seat near a metal crate, checking his thermal clip count. "How were doing on medi-gel? I think I used three capsules before I finished off two Brutes." he inquired. Miaa glanced at her in-built medpack, and clicking off the lid, she gestured two fingers out of three before putting the lid back. "Hmmm... What do you think?" she coyly replied.

He stretched up, and reaching into one of his hidden armor compartment, he took out a small, yet rounded device. "This is what were after for. Allied intel informed us of a very valuable, encrypted data stored in this device. One of the scientists informed us of their colleagues work here near a Prothean cache beacon here, untold wealth of information stashed here before their race was wiped out."

She took the diminutive contraption and examined it very closely. "What could it contain?" she inquired. Activating her omni-tool, she scanned the piece of tech until it glowed back to life. The device, pulsing into life created a transparent, spherical drone. It emitted a human voice, laced with usual electronic edge.

"Friendly forces detected. Activating containment protocol 7815-XVKR. Commencing..." as the drone drummed on. Both Miaa's and Ryan's omni-tools automatically lit up greatly to give the drone more juice to function.

The duo waited on, captivated by what information was withheld in this drone.

Miaa looked onto her human friend which, likewise, had been staring at her with half-confused, half curious eyes. "Hope its some useful information to help with the Crucible Project?" Miaa suggested. "Lets hope so. I already hate this war more than anything." Ryan stammered.

The data drone then shaped itself as a holographic VI of a human scientist, its luminescence glowing in modesty. It spoke out to the duo as the hologram paced back and forth anxiously.

"Hello. My name is Dr. Sean Richmods." the VI stated. "I am the head of a research team here in Pragia in the Nubian Expanse cluster. In our line of work here, we've managed to unearth a Prothean beacon here northeast of our research station."

The VI suddenly warped again, the hologram now showing the location of the beacon. It blinked the marked location in red, the distance read about five clicks away. This was a cake walk compared to the more rigid, longer jogging exercises back in Alliance training.

The hologram twisted itself back into the usual human scientist before. "We didn't have the chance to examine all of the data contents in the beacon itself. However, we've come across something else in the data cache. Something about the Catalyst and the Crucible itself." the VI pondered.

The two knew the immense efforts taken in the Crucible Project initiated by the Systems Alliance. It was a bold, last resort plan to wipe out the Reapers with a super weapon, the design spearheaded by countless advanced organic civilizations spanning over eons, but were extinguished by the merciless, hyper-advanced machines.

We've managed to ide..."

The VI then suddenly fizzled out of existence, much to the dismay of the duo.

"Damn it!" the quarian objected angrily, her efforts to re-activate the drone ending in futility. She then tried to click her omni-tool, which also ran out of power. Sighing in disappointment, Miaa asked her human companion if he had any luck, to no avail.

He shook his head in frustration as his omni-tool died out. "Should've bring more batteries." as he checked his empty storage compartment...

"Looks like were also cut-off from communications. We won't be able to contact our shuttle for pickup until were able to power up our omni-tools." Picking up the small device which dropped to the ground as it fizzled out, Ryan now noticed the elongated shadows of their bodies growing. He looked up to the now setting horizon, his eyes reflecting the warm, orange sun as it sank deeper and deeper into the horizon.

It was going to get dark soon.


End file.
